Booth's comments on Spangler ?

[BettyO]

This is the image in Oldroyd's book - I think it's about circa 1901 or thereabouts -

[L Verge]

Betty's right, and we need to find Oldroyd's photos which were with his collection at Ford's in the 1970s and now are unaccounted for.

[Jim Garrett]

I'm working on finding the Oldroyd photos. Keep your fingers crossed

[Houmes]

Betty, I made a scan of it. No date is given.

The image of the back of Ford's Theatre, according to Looking For Lincoln is from either the Meserve-Kunhardt collection or the Mellon collection, without further description of photo size, etc. It appears on the same page as period images of the Surratt boarding house, Dr. Mudd's house, and the Garrett farm house on page 44. Those three photographs are circular, which is characteristic of being taken by a Kodak #1 or a Kodak #2 camera, both introduced in 1889. The Kodak #1 produced 2 1/2 inch photographs and the Kodak #2 produced 3 1/2 inch images. Both were manufactured until 1897. It's quite possible the Ford's Theatre image was cropped and was orginally taken with one of these early Kodak cameras, meaning it dates to after 1889.

[Dave Taylor]

This image of Baptist Alley is from the Meserve Collection and available for license from PictureHistory.com:


(Roger, how do I resize images that are hosted elsewhere? I want to shrink this down a bit.)

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Betty's right, and we need to find Oldroyd's photos which were with his collection at Ford's in the 1970s and now are unaccounted for.

Relatively modern copies of a few of Oldroyd's photos are at the Maryland State Archives:

http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/ms...eccol=1897

[Dave Taylor]

I've never seen a period photo of the rear of Ford's Theatre and Baptist Alley - but engravings in both Harpers and Frank Leslie's show what appears to be an anvil or bollard in the back - both of which could be utilized to tie a horse; which makes me wonder therefore since two separate sketch artists for two separate papers drew these images if there wasn't something of the sort actually there!

Frank Leslie's

Harper's

I'd put some faith in the sketch from Frank Leslie's. It was done by Albert Berghaus, the same illustrator who spent time in and interviewed the tenants of the Petersen House in order to create a realistic sketch of the President's deathbed.

Berghaus also sketched Booth's stable in the alley:

[Dawn E Foster]

I, believe it or not, don't have that book ...

I just discovered hardcovers of both Looking for Lincoln, and their Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography, on Amazon marketplace recently (sorry, Laurie). It's almost sad - I think I paid $7 total for one, and $9 for the other ($16 seemed fitting for our 16th President), and they both appear to be brand new. And gorgeous too, though I only took a quick peek. (I think someone may be giving them to me for Christmas) I don't know, an unloved book just seems like one of those poor unwanted pets at a shelter ...

[Tom Bogar]

As for the anvil/bollard thing, granted I tend to look at everything from the theatre POV, but to me it looks like the kind of thing Gifford and his other stage mechanics would have used to fashion metalwork used in construction of special scenic effects, esp. something like the frame used for Seven Sisters or the various Clara Kellogg operas that year.

[RJNorton]

Dave, regarding resizing photos, here's what works for me. I use Microsoft Paint for this. First I save the original image to my hard drive. Then I start Paint, choose open, and then find the picture on my hard drive and click on it. Then I hit the Resize button in Paint and choose Percentage. Now, for example, if you want to make the picture half the original size type in 50 where is says Horizontal and Vertical. Make sure Maintain Aspect Ratio is checked. Then save it. The result is a picture that is the same as before but half the original size. Then upload the resized picture to your file host. If the original large photo is already saved on your host, then overwrite it with the new resized photo (making sure you have not changed the name of the photo).

[BettyO]

I, believe it or not, don't have that book ...

I just discovered hardcovers of both Looking for Lincoln, and their Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography, on Amazon marketplace recently (sorry, Laurie). It's almost sad - I think I paid $7 total for one, and $9 for the other ($16 seemed fitting for our 16th President), and they both appear to be brand new. And gorgeous too, though I only took a quick peek. (I think someone may be giving them to me for Christmas) I don't know, an unloved book just seems like one of those poor unwanted pets at a shelter ...

Thank you, Dawn! Yes - I feel the same way about books. It saddens me to see them "abandoned and unwanted!" HA!

I'll check out the Looking for Lincoln book. I don't have that one....

[RJNorton]

I paid about $40 for my copy of Looking for Lincoln several years ago.

[Gene C]

Is anyone familiar with this book, Backstage with Booth? I am wondering if it is more fiction than fact?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419693859/ref=...3V7M2JTZYF

[wsanto]

Eureka ! I knew I wasn't crazy. I went back and checked the Evidence book and found the source of Booth's comments.

They are located in Herold's statement toward the end. Page 681. He says he recalled Booth being sorry for the man who held his horse at the Theater. -- I wonder if this was in reference to Spangler or Peanut John ? Its not clear. He did kick the guy after all.

Do you think there is something else? Is the context of the quote in American Brutus that Booth was sorry Spangler was a suspect in the conspiracy or that he was sorry that he kicked the man he thought was Spangler when mounting his horse?

Although being detained in prision, was Spangler even considered as a conspirator by the time of Booth's death? And would Booth have learned this through the newspapers?

Thanks,

Bill C

[L Verge]

Is anyone familiar with this book, Backstage with Booth? I am wondering if it is more fiction than fact?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1419693859/ref=...3V7M2JTZYF

Gene,

The book has been out for awhile and is fairly accurate. If I remember correctly, it focuses more on the mechanics of running a play behind-the-scenes during the 19th century.

[RJNorton]

Is the context of the quote in American Brutus that Booth was sorry Spangler was a suspect in the conspiracy or that he was sorry that he kicked the man he thought was Spangler when mounting his horse?

Bill, this is simply my opinion. The way I read Mike Kauffman's words in AB I think Booth was saying he was sorry that Spangler was a suspect in the conspiracy.